


funny thing about parents

by skyways_are_highways



Category: Pirate101 (Video Game)
Genre: But not until the end, Gen, Memory Loss, Parental Death, Underage Drinking, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, canon compliant if you dont look to hard, for valid reasons, she do just be forgetting her parents rather than deal with it doe, the pirate is not a fan of her parents, time skips galore, with minor consequences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24579631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyways_are_highways/pseuds/skyways_are_highways
Summary: The Captain's always had a complicated relationship with her parents. Why was anyone surprised when she agreed to forget them?orSnippets of the pirate's thoughts of her parents, right up until she chooses to forget.
Relationships: Pirate & Pirate's Parents (Pirate101)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	funny thing about parents

**Author's Note:**

> \- Pirate is a witchdoctor, about 16-17  
> \- Parents were blasted by the Armada  
> \- I feel like no one talks about the Mysteries and like, forgetting your childhood. That part's mostly cannon but I took some liberties.

The Captain didn't talk about her parents. Not to her first mate and especially not to the rest of the crew. She didn't have anything to say about them, anyway, so what did it matter? Just to be safe, she still never brought it up. Still, as the crew slowly got bigger, it was getting harder and harder to avoid the topic. She knew that people looked at her strange if she abruptly left when someone mentioned their mother, but it was easier than dealing with everyone's silent speculation. 

As much as they tried to be subtle, the Captain knew they thought about it. Sometimes she would even hear the newer crew members ask Bonnie Anne if they thought she wasn't listening. She could deal with that. At least, until, Gaspard De Vole joined the crew.

The Captain had been ready to just break him out of the Presidio and move on. She thought that breaking him out would be a nice favor she could cash in on later. The Captain had been planning out how they were going to get the spices when the guinea pig said he recognized her. 

"Sorry, buddy, but I really have no clue who you are," she said, half paying attention. She sent a couple of crew members upstairs to clear out some of the monquistans before they went for the key. 

"Listen, you look familiar! Bless my soul, I knew your parents! I sailed with their crew for years," he squeaked. The Captain froze, and so did everyone on the crew. She turned around to look at him before deciding he wasn't lying. 

She straightened herself out and turned back to the crew, "Well, get going!" Bonnie Anne gave her a pointed look and dashed up the stairs with the others, leaving Gaspard and the Captain alone. 

"Are you sure it was my parents?" She asked a little hesitantly. Gaspard nodded vigorously and the Captain sighed. "Alright, listen, I'll let you out and take you back to Gullet, but don't talk about them. I'm not really their biggest fan, understood?" 

He agreed, but the Captain knew he was confused. She didn't get why. Her parents had left her, why wouldn't she be upset? She made sure he kept quiet, even when he joined the crew. The Captain was glad to have him around. Gaspard was a good friend and pulled his weight. But he knew more about her parents than she probably ever would. And that scared her.

~~~~~

The Captain had continued to avoid talking about her parents for a while and was quite proud of her persistence. But it was in the Cave of Many Voices her streak was broken. She was mindlessly accomplishing the rites of passage when the little monkey had told her to go touch rocks and speak to spirits. The Captain had looked at Bonnie Anne and shrugged. Even if the spirits didn't talk to her, she knew enough magic to fool most people, especially ones whose eyes were two feet off the ground. 

"That'll be easy, for a change," Bonnie sighed and smiled halfheartedly and Gaspard agreed. The Captain nodded absently and turned the corner to find the cave. It looked normal enough, but the faint glow emanating from inside unnerved her. Something about the monkey's behavior told her this was a trial they thought she would fail. She had already been prepared to fake it, but the crystals did seem to be magic someway or another.

Bonnie Anne seemed a bit nervous, too. She had never really been comfortable around magic in the first place, and the Captain knew the idea of ghosts freaked her out. The Captain lightly touched one of the crystals and suddenly all she could hear were whispers. Wind buffeted her face from nowhere and the walls seemed to glow just a bit brighter.

After what felt like an eternity, the voices quieted into murmurs and the wind had died down. The Captain didn't dare move her hand from the stone and was going to call for Bonnie Anne and Gaspard, who had disappeared from her sight when two of the voices rose above the rest.

"Daughter, hear me!" It sounded faintly like a woman, and the Captain realized it was her mother. She whirled around at the second voice, presumably her father. They shouted for her one last time, "El Dorado, find us there!" 

The Captain shook her head, clearing out the spirit's voices, and ripped her hand off the crystals. "Oh piss off," she muttered under her breath before turning around to see Bonnie Anne and Gaspard right where she had left them. Gaspard smiling faintly and Bonnie just looked concerned. 

"Captain, that was your parents! I can't believe it!" Gaspard said. He laughed in surprise and patted the Captain's shoulder, "We must plan to head to El Dorado then, wherever that is." 

She shrugged him off, "We're busy right now. They can wait," the Captain said sharply and walked out of the cave a little too quickly. She would put pirating and treasure over reunions. 

The Captain could barely remember their faces, anyway, they hadn't stuck around long enough for that. She wasn't important enough to stop them from taking a suicide mission, and while she had felt bad as a kid, she'd grown out of it. The Captain decided that thinking about her mother and father wasn't worth it a long time ago.

~~~~~

The Captain was having a hard time wrapping around the fact that she was speaking to a god. She had been sent to the temple in Nova Aquila to help the oracle, and suddenly the statue in front of her had begun to move and talk right back. Sure, she'd spoken to Athena before, but it's still a difficult thing to comprehend. 

She had gotten the information she was looking for, but Hawkules had warned her prior that it was rude to rush a conversation with a god, so the Captain sat there, confused, making small talk with the god of death. She'd met Death before and the Captain liked to think they were something close to friends. He definitely owed her a favor for killing Captain Blood, but she wasn't going to mention it until he did. Hades, however, was a different thing entirely.

"You know, there's a couple of souls down here waiting for you. They refuse to pass on without speaking to you first. Anything I should tell them?" He asked nonchalantly. The Captain froze. She had sent quite a few people down to the Underworld recently, though she couldn't imagine any of her enemies being mad enough to wait for her. Her parents were sitting in the afterlife, eagerly waiting for a conversation the Captain would really rather do without. 

"Tell them I don't plan on dropping by anytime soon," She said a little too angrily, "They could've talked to me when they were alive, and they didn't." She knew she was unloading onto Hades a bit, but she didn't really care. While she was expecting him to be mad, the statue seemed as understanding as it could be.

It sighed as well as it could, "I've spoken to many who feel similarly to you, I know where you're coming from. Know your parents do not blame you." Hades said before the statue stood upright again and the marbled dulled. The Captain felt a bit bad for ending their conversation on such a tense note, and she knew Vadima would've been disappointed in her. When she exited the temple and rejoined her crew she didn't mention what Hades had said.

~~~~~

Though the crew stayed in Skull Island frequently, there was nothing better than the nights when someone smuggled rum onto the ship. Even if the Captain was a bit young for alcohol, nobody cared enough to call her out, and most understood that it was necessary sometimes. Bonnie Anne might be wholely unsympathetic to any hangovers the next morning, but she let the Captain have her fun.

Despite the alcohol, the crew was still tired from the day of traveling before, and there were fewer shenanigans than there would have been. The Captain didn't particularly mind, she wanted to think anyway. Her parents hadn't come up since her talk with Hades until the Frogfather had sent for her. He had given her the ship that belonged to her parents, and she'd used it for a bit since anything was better than the old raft Avery had given her. The Captain had sailed around on it until they're adventures sent the crew to Monquista and they decided they needed an upgrade. The Frogfather had offered to keep it in Jonah Town again and she was quick to agree. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to sell it.

The crew had been docked in Aquila when the poorly dressed frog had handed her a letter and jumped back through the Transportaler. The crew had headed back to Skull Island the next day since it seemed urgent. The Captain took another swig of her drink and leaned back against the edge of the ship. As much as the crew knew to avoid mentioning her parents, Gaspard still couldn't help but asking if the summons had anything to do with the ship. The Frogfather hadn't specified.

The Captain dug in her jacket pocket until her hand closed around an old photo. She pulled it out and ran her thumb along the worn edge. Her mother's face looked back at her. As angry as the Captain was with her parents she had to admit, she had questions. The alcohol wasn't helping, but she didn't really care. Why had they left her? Her parents knew the Armada was after them so why did they go looking for trouble? Was she not important? She tried to clear her head of the thoughts but they wouldn't go. So she grabbed another bottle of rum and hoped that would do a better job. Bonnie Anne was right, she would have a killer headache in the morning

~~~~~

The Mysteries were decidedly not the Captain's favorite people. The snakes hissed at her from under their hoods and slithered around their cave. They giggled to one another as she entered, and Bonnie Anne didn't exactly look comfortable either.

"Your parentsss isssss the price you paid. One ansssswer isssss the prize you gain." One of the Mysteries approached the Captain and grinned wickedly. The snake moved to touch the Captain's face.

"One answer? That's not fair!" Bonnie Anne spoke up from behind the Captain and shoved between them. The other crew members also looked ready to attack. 

"Bonnie, guys, it's fine. We need to find Argos, and I'm not that worried about it anyway." The Captain said, giving the crew a look that said calm down. She stepped around Bonnie and faced the Mysteries again.

The snakes giggled again, "Yesssss, thissss isss for the besssst," another one came near the Captain and slowly lifted her hand as if to add to the drama. 

"Just do it already, we're on a time crunch." The Captain said. The Mysteries looked at one another and shrugged. All three reached a hand up to the Captain's face and touched her forehead. The crew all winced behind her, but there was no fanfare. The Captain opened her eyes after a long moment, "That's it, then?" 

The Mysteries nodded and told them what they needed to know about Argos. The crew did most of the talking. The Captain was trying to figure out exactly what the snakes had done to her.

She knew she had parents, though she couldn't remember a thing about them. Not their faces, their voices, especially not her childhood with them. The Captain could remember talking about them and vaguely understood that they were dead, but she had no idea who they were.

Back on the ship, the Captain felt something in her pocket. She stopped walking and dug into her jacket. Bonnie Anne turned to look, her face forming a question. Before she could ask what the Captain was doing, she pulled a crumpled photograph from her pocket. It was full of people she recognized except for one woman near the middle, "Whose this?" She asked.

Bonnie looked over her shoulder and grimaced, "Marco Pollo's crew, remember? The woman's your mother," Bonnie was waiting for something to shift in the Captain's face. 

"Oh," The Captain held the picture closer to her eyes. She could sort of see the resemblance. Bonnie sighed.

"I'm honestly surprised you still have that, you always seemed fussed about your parents. Not like you ever spoke about 'em." Bonnie Anne said and left when the Captain didn't say anything else.

The Captain didn't know what Bonnie meant about being mad with her parents. She didn't know anything about them, and all she felt was a dull ache in her chest when she tried to think about them. The Captain knew Bonnie was right, she had been mad, furious even, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember why.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually think the pirate's parents are bad people! But I can see why a teenager who had to raise herself might, uh, feel differently.


End file.
